At long last, Kentucky’s Travis will live his dream of playing in an NCAA Tournament
Mention Reid Travis in Minneapolis and you’ll likely hear “the bike story.” It begins with Jackie Travis calling a coach to say that she was sending her two older sons to his youth basketball clinic.
A while later, the coach sees Jonah Travis and Reid Travis pedaling their bicycles to the gym door. As the coach, Dave Thorson re-told the story this week, Jonah was a fifth- or sixth-grader. Reid was a second- or third-grader.
“To think that 20 years later one is a Harvard grad that went to four NCAA tournaments with Harvard,” Thorson said of Jonah, “and one’s a Stanford grad (Reid), now he’s finally getting to play in the NCAA Tournament, what a poignant story.
“Had I known at the time what these guys were going to do for my program, and what great people they are, I would have probably gone and picked them up. And they wouldn’t have had to ride their bikes to camp.”
With help from Jonah and Reid Travis, Thorson became the John Wooden of high school basketball in Minnesota. He led DeLaSalle High School to nine state championships.
This year’s NCAA Tournament gives Reid Travis a chance to come full circle. With the Final Four in his hometown of Minneapolis, he could ride a bicycle from his home to U.S. Bank Stadium. Easily.
“Literally a jog, a short bike from their home,” Thorson said.
Sitting at his locker before Kentucky held a public workout in Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena on Wednesday, Travis smiled as he gave home-to-Final Four directions.
“You just cross the Mississippi River from the Stone Arch Bridge,” he said. “You’re right there. It’s a walk I make all the time when I’m back home.”
The idea of Travis returning home to play in the Final Four excites his family. But his father is mindful of how a Final Four run can require good fortune to smile on a team.
“We haven’t exactly ran out and started stocking up on bottles of champagne quite yet,” Nate Travis said this week. “We’re clinging to that prayer of hope.”
The elder Travis said he could look out a window at home and see the roof of the U.S. Bank Stadium. On this day, he saw the roof decorated in purple.
“I can’t tell if they’re celebrating Prince or Easter,” he quipped.
A homecoming angle is made sweeter by the tests of perseverance that Reid Travis has endured. As a freshman, winning the National Invitation Tournament with Stanford seemed like a nice appetizer for Travis. But an injury limited his sophomore season to eight games. The next two seasons saw Stanford not receive NCAA Tournament bids.
“It’s frustrating,” Travis said of never having played in an NCAA Tournament. “That’s ultimately what I was working for. That was something I always had No. 1 on my list. It was always one of those things that was in the back of my mind.”
Nate Travis recalled watching NCAA Tournament games with Reid. Father could not say how young his middle son was when they first watched together. “He was probably sitting on my lap as a small infant watching it,” Nate Travis said.
Not only will Kentucky’s game against Abilene Christian on Thursday be the first time Reid Travis has played in an NCAA Tournament game, it will also be the first time he’d even attended an NCAA Tournament game.
Jonah played in the NCAA Tournament all four of his seasons with Harvard. Because Reid’s high school teams played deep in the state tournament each year, he never could see Jonah play in college basketball’s showcase event.
As the bicycle story suggests, the brothers were close.
“Everything I’ve done is kind of in the footsteps of him,” Reid Travis said. “He’ll be here this weekend. I’ll be asking him a lot of questions. I’ll be leaning on him as far as what to expect and how I can get my mind in the right spot.”
Coincidentally, Jonah’s college career ended in Jacksonville when North Carolina beat Harvard 67-65 in the first round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament. On a Thursday.
Reid Travis’ only in-person experience with March Madness came when he attended a public workout in a year the NCAA Tournament came to Minneapolis. The team was Southern Cal. Seeing DeMar DeRozan was vivid in his memory.
“It’s weird to think I’m going to be participating in one of those open practices here,” Reid Travis said. “It’s kind of a full circle kind of deal that I’ll be on the other side of it now.”
Thorson, now an assistant coach at Colorado State, pointed out that Reid Travis could be part of a DeLaSalle High School reunion at the Final Four. Three other DeLaSalle graduates are in this year’s NCAA Tournament; Geno Crandall of Gonzaga, Sacar Anim of Marquette and Gabe Kalscheur of Minnesota.
“That’s really, really special,” Thorson said. “I’m totally blessed. And they all sort of rubbed off of one another.”
Former teammates in the same position pleased Reid Travis.
“A bunch of guys from my high school kind of sprinkled throughout the tournament, it makes me proud,” he said. “I talk to those guys all the time. It’d be a cool deal to see how it works out throughout the tournament.”
After pointing out how Reid Travis is relentless, Thorson said he reminded his former player to have fun in this NCAA Tournament.
UK Coach John Calipari had similar advice.
“I grabbed him today,” Calipari said. “I said, ‘You’ve prepared your whole life for this.’ And I said, ‘Have a ball, man. Have a ball.’”
Thursday
No. 2 seed Kentucky vs. No. 15 seed Abilene Christian
What: NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional round-of-64 game
When: 7:10 p.m.
Where: Jacksonville, Fla.
Records: Kentucky 27-6, Abilene Christian 27-6
Series: First meeting
TV: CBS-27
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
This story was originally published March 20, 2019 at 6:57 PM.